Squat Development 11 May @ WFAC

Man, I don't know what I expected when I headed out to WFAC on Saturday, but I was pleasantly surprised by how welcoming the staff was toward everyone who came in. I thought the atmosphere would be kind of intimidating solely due to how much of a knowledge gap there would be between myself and the coaches on staff, but with how freely they lend their expertise to advance the knowledge base of the attendees, the pride they have in their trade becomes abundantly clear. It was invaluable to have my coaching assessed by other attendees and get feedback from the coaches that were floating around. Definitely feel like I left with a much clearer (rather than abstract or vague) idea of where I can improve as I pursue my own coaching.

My background:
I currently coach full-time at a gym in Pearland, Texas. Most of my clients are doing / have done the NLP. I’ve attended two full SS seminars and a squat-only seminar. I have a background in powerlifting.

That being said, I learned more about the squat at this seminar, both as a lifter and a coach, than I have at any other seminar / event. The small coach-to-student ratio was amazing. Rip and Nick were there as advertised, but so were Chase and Brent. I also believe the base knowledge of the students, many of whom were Starting Strength interns, contributed to this as well. Most important to me, however, was the pedagogical aspect of the whole process vs at the full seminar: it bridged the gap between being coached for my lifting and being silently evaluated for my coaching ability by the platform coaches. I got realtime feedback about when I was talking too much; not defaulting to tactile cues; not talking enough; correcting a downstream symptom in the lift instead of an upstream cause in the setup; etc. It was immensely helpful to my coaching practice.

I’d also like to thank y’all for putting us up next door to the gym. It was kind of you and cool for us to see the SS radio studio.